Frankie’s Organic Puffs – BBQ

It seems that Frankie’s has gone through a bit of a rebranding, with the new, more modern packaging and changing the name from clouds to puffs. They also got rid of the resemblance to old grandpa Frankie which makes me a little sad, but as brands scale up I can see how going with the cartoon grandpa is more palatable to a wider audience. Personally I think clouds was a more interesting name and more unique, but as long as the core product remains the same, I will still offer my wallet to them. Let’s find out if anything else has changed beyond the naming and packaging.

I can’t tell if my memory is foggy, but appearance wise these look roughly the same though I remember them being ever so slightly smaller. The general way they are baked and cooked looks to be the same given the shape. They smell of the usual barbeque sauce that most other brands use as flavouring, so nothing out of the ordinary there.

The texture is like a slightly denser cheese puff – unlike the cheese puffs you may be used to, these don’t melt quite or dissolve the same way. In fact, it takes quite a bit of time before these soften up and disintegrate. These are made more for biting into and chewing on. They are quite airy and only leave behind a little bit of grit, likely from the quinoa. If you are more of a texture person and like to bite into your cheese puffs and get a slight crunch to them, then these are perfect.

The flavour is similar to some of the other flavours I’ve had in that they are a bit on the mild side. Not that it’s a bad thing in this case though, since barbeque tends to be a distinct and stronger flavour on it’s own already, it’s got a nice and light quality here where they used a light touch instead of drenching the puffs in seasoning. I appreciate cases like this where less is more.

Overall the experience was not too different from what I remember before they rebranded. To put it another way, they are still delightful and a great alternative to the more common cheese puff brands, especially if you’re vegetarian or looking for something oven baked instead of fried. If not for the fact that these are premium priced, I would say I prefer these in most cases, but that’s mostly preference. Go and give Frankie’s a try and see for yourself.